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The 2008 global financial and economic crisis led to a significant increase in unemployment rates in most developed economies, yet despite the rising supply of labor, a high share of employers claim that they cannot find the right talent and skills. Concerns that economic restructuring and changing skill needs associated with new technologies and workplace organization practices will not be met by an adequately skilled workforce, has placed the issue of skill mismatch - the incongruence between skill supply and skill demand - high up in the policy agenda. This volume contains eleven original research articles which deal with the linkages between education and skills and the causes and consequences of different types of skill mismatch. Topics include the way graduate jobs can be defined, the labor market decisions and outcomes of graduates, the determinants of the overeducation wage penalty, the determinants and consequences of underskilling, the wage return of skills, the impact of skill mismatch on aggregate productivity, and the role of work-related training and job complexity on skill development.

The South African labor market is characterized by a high degree of inflexibility and complexity which poses significant challenges for both indigenes and migrants looking to be integrated into the labor market. These challenges are likely to be more poignant for international migrants as they face additional barriers owing to a chronically high employment rate, xenophobic sentiments, and racial exclusion. For female tied migrants, gender bias, expressed through migration policies and legislation, adds yet another layer of complexity to long-term aspirations of settling in South Africa. How well tied migrants fare in the South African labor market is an important matter for consideration. Using an intersectional approach and the theory of governmentality, this study sought to deconstruct the labor market subjectivities of tied migrants in South Africa. This paper used a qualitative approach, with a narrative and interpretivist research paradigm, on female tied migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa who either accompanied their husbands or followed them to South Africa in a process of family reunification. Although 13 interviews were carried out in total, as part of a broader study, the narratives of six participants were included in this study, to zone in on labor market experiences. The study found that despite their high human capital, tied migrants are not likely to be well integrated into the South African labor market. Their inequality in the South African labor market was attributed to their gender, ethnicity, race, migrant status and locality and various intersections thereof through which they are subjected to informality, immobility and precarity.

Within the past decades, employment precariousness has emerged as an alarming phenomenon afflicting labor markets across Europe. While the spread of job insecurity can be traced to specific mechanisms and processes triggered by recent macroeconomic developments, evidence shows how mainstream practices in labor market policy hold some clear responsibilities. Policy prescriptions forwarded by the economic analysis of dominant politicaleconomic paradigms have been consistently prioritizing objectives of flexibility and competitiveness as a way to secure growth and employment, yet this strategy proved to be the source of lower quality and more uncertain jobs for wider shares of the workforce, with a higher incidence among the lower skilled. After having documented and further contextualized these labor market issues, the present research will investigate whether the unprecedented social challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic were met by the European Commission with an innovative approach to active labor market management. Our findings suggest that the proposal by the Commission of a policy strategy centered on upskilling and reskilling through training schemes might not break with past trends of precariousness. Specifically, as in the case of flexicurity, the attempt to achieve win-win solutions in different, and possibly contrasting, policy agendas - in this case the upskilling of highly qualified technicians and the reskilling and relocation of displaced workers - configures as an effective focus for political agreement, while numerous unaddressed barriers prevent the achievement of real change.

For this insightful collection, Professor Reich has selected some of the most significant published articles on labor mobility and segmented markets. The book investigates the development of this important field from the pioneering papers on labor market segmentation analysis of the 1970s, through the early debates to the later theoretical models and econometric evidence. The second volume offers an overview of the evolution from segmentation to flexibility in labor markets up to the present day and explores topics such as the growth of temporary jobs in Europe, the influence of gender, immigration and race, later econometric controversies and the phenomenon of flexicurity. The volumes will be an essential resource for students and for scholars wishing to investigate this important area

Although converging somewhat, men are still economically more successful than women. These stark economic differences prevail in the United States and in virtually all countries throughout the world. This volume contains a number of important new articles analyzing reasons for continuing gender discrepancies in wellbeing. To get at these incongruities, the volume analyzes a number of key questions including: Do men seek greater financial risk than women? Do men really bargain better, and under what circumstances? Why are women rapidly closing the college enrollment gap, but not the wage gap? How do educational choices affect men's and women's starting salaries? What are the chances of women attaining the same occupational status as men? And, how does intergenerational socioeconomic mobility differ between sons and daughters? The answers will not only further our understanding of resource distribution, but will also inform the policy debate on where within society one finds discriminatory practices and where one does not.

Employment protection legislation, unemployment benefits and active labor market policy are Janus-faced institutions. On the one hand they are devices of insurance against labor market risk that provide income and employment security. On the other hand they influence the capacities of labor markets to adapt to changing economic conditions since institutional features of the welfare state also affect actors' economic adaptation strategies. Insufficient labor market adaptability results in higher and more persistent unemployment. Hence, in order to in-crease the adaptability of European labor markets, reforms had to address these closely inter-acting policy areas. The first aim of the paper is to describe recent reforms of employment protection, unemployment insurance and active labor market policies in different European welfare states (Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany). The paper shows whether and to what extent national policy patterns converge in the direction of a new balance of flexibility and security with employment protection being eased and labor market policies being activated through a combination of carrots and sticks. Secondly, in terms of the political economy of welfare state reforms, the paper will answer the question whether consistent reforms of the three institutions are more likely in political systems characterized by relative strong government and/or social partnership since such institutional prerequisites may favor package deals across policy areas.